How to replace underscore with dashes when building XML document with Nokogiri?

Question

I'm building a new XML document using the following code:

doc = Nokogiri::XML::Builder.new(:encoding => 'UTF-8') do
  reginfo {
    client_type_id client_type == :associate ? ASSOCIATE : CLIENT 
    parent_ {
      id_ client_type == :associate ? associate_id : customer_id
      client_type_id client_type == :associate ? ASSOCIATE : CLIENT  
      vsn client_type == :associate ? associate_vsn : customer_vsn
    }
  }
end

The tags above listed as client_type_id show up in the XML file like client_type_id, but that is not the correct XML tag name format. I need them to be client-type-id.

I tried replacing the line with:

:"client-type-id" client_type == :associate ? ASSOCIATE : CLIENT

but I get:

syntax error, unexpected tIDENTIFIER, expecting '}'
    :"client-type-id" client_type == :associate ? ASSOCIATE : CLIENT 
                                 ^

or:

:"client-type-id" (client_type == :associate ? ASSOCIATE : CLIENT)

but I get:

syntax error, unexpected '(', expecting '}'
        :"client-type-id" (client_type == :associate ? ASSOCIATE : CLIENT)
                           ^

Is there a way to tell Nokogiri::XML::Builder:

on a per-line basis, to use dashes for a tag name and does it have a different syntax?
that for the entire document, during creation or after, to use dashes for all underscores in element names so that it forms correctly formatted XML element names?

You can use a string method like .gsub to replace _ with dashes - — Cyzanfar
You are also missing the local variable between the pipes after the do. example: doc = Nokogiri::XML::Builder.new(:encoding => 'UTF-8') do |xml| — Cyzanfar
@Cyzanfar |xml| is not a local variable, it is block variable and since OP did not use it, it might be easily omitted. Block vars are not mandatory. — Aleksei Matiushkin
True, it is a block variable however it is local to the context of the block therefore it is not wrong to call it a local variable — Cyzanfar

Aleksei Matiushkin Aleksei Matiushkin · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-12T16:09:08

There is a fancy way of doing this:

Nokogiri::XML::Builder.new(:encoding => 'UTF-8') do |xml|
  ...
  xml.send :"client-type-id", (client_type == :associate ? ASSOCIATE : CLIENT)
  ...
end

How to replace underscore with dashes when building XML document with Nokogiri?

1 Answers